Disintegrating impeller and feed mechanism therefor for disintegrating lump solids



Feb. 1, 1955 L. w. EDWARDS 2,701,105

DISINTEGRATING IMPELLER AND FEED MECHANISM THEREFOR FOR DISINTEGRATING LUMP SOLIDS Filed April 11, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ATTO RN EY Feb. 1, 1955 L. w. EDWARDS 2,701,105

DISINTEGRATING IMPELLER AND FEED MECHANISM THEREFOR FOR DISINTEGRATING LUMP SOLIDS Filed April 11, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 IOLArLN/E NFOR Feb. 1, 1955 w. EDWARDS DISINTEGRATING IMPELLER AND FEED MECHANISM THEREFOR FOR DISINTEGRATING LUMP SOLIDS Filed April 11, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 DESINTEGRATING IMPELLER AND FEED lVlECH- ANISM THEREFOR FOR DISINTEGRATING LUMP SOLIDS Lewis W. Edwards, Coatesville, Pa., assignor to Lukens Steel Company, Coatesville, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application April 11, 1951, Serial No. 220,444

11 Claims. (Cl. 241-81) This invention relates to equipment for'disintegrating lump solids, and is especially concerned with that type of equipment incorporating one or more rotative impellers or bats comprising a feeder impeller and a disintegrating impeller, the lump solids being fed by the feeder impeller into the path of movement of the disintegrating impeller for the purpose of effecting disintegration.

The equipment of the invention is applicable to the disintegration of a wide variety of lump solid materials, such as stones, ore, coal and like materials. Certain features of the invention are especially adapted to a mobile unit to be transported over cultivated lands for the purpose of picking up the top soil, separating the stones or rock therefrom, disintegrating such stones and returning the powdered and disintegrated material to the ground. Since this comprises a particularly important use of the equipment of the invention, it is hereinafter described chiefiy in that connection.

Because of the nature of the materials to be handled, the operation of equipment of the kind referred to presents certain problems to the solution of which the present invention is primarily directed. Thus, with such equipment, clogging or jamming of the materials being handled may occur in various parts of the apparatus, in a manner impairing the intended operation thereof. To meet this problem, the invention contemplates a number of improvements in equipment of the character involved, including certain improvements in the arrangement of the disintegrating impeller itself, and its housing. According to this feature, certain of the housing walls associated with the impeller are relatively Widely spaced from the path of movement of the impeller, in the manner which will be fully described hereinafter.

In addition to the foregoing, the invention provides a feed mechanism by which the lump solids are introduced into the path of movement of the disintegrating impeller, which feed mechanism is provided with specially located relief ports at certain points along the feed path, which ports provide for discharge, out of the feed path, of relatively small size pieces or particles of material not requiring disintegration, which pieces or particles otherwise cause overloading or interfere with the intended operation, as by jamming, increasing Wear and necessitating the expenditure of more power in the overall operation of the equipment.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, feed mechanism is provided for projecting or throwing the lump solids into the path of movement of the disintegrating impeller in a novel manner, in which the feed path which extends obliquely to the plane of rotation of the disintegrating impeller has a component of movement which is partly oblique and partly tangent to the path of movement of the impeller bat and generally opposite to its direction of rotation. Because of this the disintegrating bat and the lump solids are moving, at least in substantial part, in opposite directions, i. e., against each other at the moment of impact, and this greatly enhances the disintegrating action of the bat. This provides for such thoroughgoing disintegration that the disintegrated materials may be directly tangentially discharged from the disintegrating impeller, without any further points of impact. Thus the equipment is not only highly effective for its purpose, but is also of relative simple construction, and the number of Wearing parts requiring replacement is reduced to a minimum.

In the preferred arrangement of the equipment, the

nited States Patent 9 ice tangential discharge from the disintegrating impeller is so arranged on the mobile unit as to extend directly downwardly to the ground. This is of advantage in reducing the dispersion of dust during operation of the equipment.

The invention also contemplates certain other improvements in the arrangement and structure of the feed mechanism and the disintegrating impeller affording certain additional special advantages mentioned hereinafter.

Figure 1 is a sectional elevational view of a disintegrating impeller and feed mechanism therefor constructed in accordance with my invention, the section being taken substantially on the line 11 of Figure 2;

Figure 2 is a plan section taken substantially on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a vertical cross section taken substantially on the line 33 of Figure 1; and

Figure 4 is a fragmentary view of a modification of the invention.

The mechanism of my invention comprises in general a disintegrating impeller device A, an adjacent feeder impeiler device B for throwing or projecting lump solids into the disintegrating impeller, and a conveyor device C for feeding the lump solids to the feeder impeller device B.

I mount these devices on a frame D preferably having wheels enabling the mechanism to be transported about as a mobile unit in the manner of the mobile unit illustrated in the copending application of Martin H. Joyce, Jr., Serial No. 220,384, filed April 11, 1951. Said application also shows a conveyor of the type I have indicated generally at C in Figure 1.

The feeder impeller device B comprises a feeder housing 11, a bat or impeller 12, an impeller shaft 13, bearings 14 for the impeller shaft, a bearing housing 15, and reduction gearing for imparting rotative movement to the impeller. A belt drive 16 transmits drive to the feeder impeller 12 from the mounting shaft of the disintegrating impeller 10 of the device A.

The feeder device B is supported from the frame D at an angle such that the impeller 12 is rotatable in a plane obliquely angled to the horizontal. This mounting includes depending web plates 17, 17 secured to the longitudinal side frame members 18, 18 and having bottom in-turned supporting flanges 19 disposed at an angle corresponding to the desired angle of the feeder device.

The feeder housing 11 is provided with a base plate 20 having laterally extended portions 21, 21 which rest on and are secured to the angularly disposed flanges 19 of the web plates 17. The bearing housing 15 for the bearings 14 of the impeller shaft 13 is secured to the bottom face of the base plate 20 so that the axis of the impeller shaft is normal to the plane of the base plate, and the impeller is secured on the shaft with its lower face closely adjacent the top face of the base plate.

An upright housing wall 22 is secured to the base plate 20 in close surrounding relation to the impeller 12 by means of tabs 23 and bolts 24, and as will be seen in Figure 2 this housing wall is open at one side to provide an outlet 25 communicating with a feed trough 26 which leads to the disintegrating device A. The outlet 25 is located at the high side of the impeller housing.

The conveyor device C and the feeder impeller device B are so relatively mounted on the frame of the machine that the lower side of the feeder device B is adjacent the discharging end of the conveyor device C. At this low side the upright housing wall 22 is provided with an arcuate upright extension plate 27 which in turn carries an arcuate fabric or other flexible extension 23 extended to a point closely adjacent the conveyor. This extension of the housing prevents material discharged by the conveyor from falling to the ground and directs such materials into the feeder housing.

The disintegrating impeller device A comprises a housing 29 for the impeller 10, a shear bar 30 positioned at one side of the impeller, an impeller shaft 31, bearings 32, 32 for the impeller shaft, and a drive pulley 33 on the impeller shaft. The drive pulley is connected by means of a belt 34 to a source of power such as an engine 35 mounted on a supporting platform 36 above the impeller housing.

The bearings 32, 32 are mounted on supports 37, 37 secured to cross members 38 and 39 of the main frame D, and are aligned to support the impeller shaft with its axis extending in the longitudinal direction of the machine so that the impeller will rotate in a transverse upright plane. This mounting of the disintegrating impeller is so located on the frame D with relation to the location of the feeder device B that the disintegrating impeller is positioned adjacent to the feeder device with the feed trough 26 interposed therebetween.

The housing 29 for the impeller comprises spaced side walls 40 and 41 generally parallel to the impellers plane of rotation, a substantially semi-circular wall 42 positioned between the side walls in spaced surrounding relation to the impeller, and lower casing structure 43 constituting a downwardly directed outlet portion of the housing. Side walls 44 and 45 are continuations of the side walls 40 and 41 and end walls 45 and 47 are continuations of the semi-circular wall 42.

The side walls 40, 44 and 41, 45 are Well spaced from the path of rotation of the impeller 10 as is also the surrounding wall 42 to provide free space around the impeller, thus preventing grinding action by particles carried around between the impeller and walls and greatly reducing the heavy air pumping which would otherwise occur.

The shear bar 30 above referred to is located at the lower edge of an inlet opening 48 in the side wall 40 of the housing 29 and is supported from the cross member 38 by means of a bracket 49. This shear bar is preferably of angle iron construction and as will be seen in Figure 1 it bridges the space between the housing wall 40 and the adjacent side face of the impeller and in effect is a continuation of the bottom of the trough 26, in accordance with the arrangement claimed in the aforementioned Joyce application.

The inlet opening 48 is positioned in one of the axial side walls. i. e. the side wall 40 at a point offset from the axis of rotation of the bat 10, i. e., as viewed in Figure 3, the inlet opening is located to the left of a vertical plane containing the bat shaft, this being to that side of the shaft at which the bat moves downwardly, as indicated by the arrow. The feed trough 26 inclines upwardly from the discharge opening of the feeder device B to the offset inlet opening 48, and thus lump solids discharging from the inclined feeder device are thrown, by way of the discharge outlet 25, the trough 26. and the inlet opening 48, in an upward direction into the path of rotation of the disintegrator bat 10 at the downwardly moving side of the bat. Thus, the movement of the lump solids into the path of the bat 19 has a tangent as well as an oblique component relative to the plane of rotation of the bat, and is in general opposite to the movement of the bat, and this is a feature of importance in obtaining highly effective disintegration.

In the handling and feeding of materials of the character for which my equipment is intended I have found that smaller particles tend to collect or pack at certain points, particularly at the lower part of the inclined feeder device and in the feed trough. Without provision to the contrary this results in jamming and overloading of the device. I have overcome such difficulties by providing a plurality of overload relief ports or apertures 50 in the bottom wall 20 of the feeder housing at the low point thereof. These ports are positioned in circumferential spacing closely adjacent the upright wall 22 of the housing. Similarly I provide a plurality of such relief ports or apertures 51 in the bottom wall 52 of the feed trough 26. These ports serve to permit small particles which would ordinarily impair the intended operation of the device to fall through and discharge out of the feed path thus preventing overloading, reducing power requirements and reducing wear. The ports 51 in the bottom wall of the feed trough also allow small particles flying out through the inlet 48 when explosion occurs in the bat chamber to fall through to the ground.

It is also to be observed that the outer wall 53 of the trough 26 is substantially tangent to the feeder impeller and is disposed at an angle to the inner wall 54 such that the trough progressively increases in width as it approaches the inlet to the disintegrating bat.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the projected lump solids and the disintegrating bat move, at least in substantial part, in opposite directions, i. e., against each other at the moment of contact. with i1)? t l t l solids are so thoroughly disintegrated that I am enabled to directly tangentially discharge the disintegrated particles to the ground through the downwardly directed discharge outlet 43, without subjecting them to additional impact for further disintegration. The discharge outlet 43 preferably is extended downwardly close to the ground by means of a boot 55 constructed of fabric or other flexible material whereby spreading of dust is greatly reduced, this being of particular importance when my device is constructed in the form of a mobile unit. The outlet structure and boot are thus in generally direct alignment with the path of discharge of the disintegrated solids, which tends to minimize wear.

In the modification illustrated in Figure 4 I employ a downwardly inclined deflecting and wear plate 56 and side plates 57 at the terminal portion of the discharge outlet 43 to provide a laterally directed discharge opening 58 with which I associate a downwardly curved dust deflector 59 for deflecting the discharging materials downwardly and substantially confining the same to the area traversed by the mobile unit.

I claim:

1. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a bat mounted for rotation in a generally upright plane, and mechanism constructed to feed lump solids into the rotative path of the bat from a region laterally offset from the plane of rotation of the bat and in an upwardly inclined direction at that side of the axis of rotation on which the bat moves downwardly said mechanism including first means providing for the supporting and the feeding of lump solids, said first means being inclined with respect to the plane of rotation of the bat, and second means having apertures adapted to pass smaller solids out of the feed path, said second means being inclined to the plane of rotation of the bat at an angle less than said first means.

2. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a bat rotatable in a generally upright plane, and mechanism constructed to introduce lump solids into the rotative path of the bat at that side of the axis of rotation of the hat on which the bat is moving downwardly, in an upward direction having a component opposite to the direction of bat movement at the point of introduction, said mechanism including first means providing for the supporting and the feeding of lump solids, said first means being inclined with respect to the plane of rotation of the bat, and second means having apertures adapted to pass smaller solids out of the feed path, said second means being inclined to the plane of rotation of the bat at an angle less than said first means.

3. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a rotatably mounted disintegrating bat, and mechanism constructed to project lump solids into the rotative path of the bat in a feed path extended obliquely toward the plane of rotation of the bat and so located that lump solids projected into the path of movement of the bat have a component of movement tangent and opposite to the movement of the bat, said mechanism including first means providing for the supporting and the feeding of lump solids, said first means being inclined with respect to the plane of rotation of the bat, and second means having apertures adapted to pass smaller solids out of the feed path, said second means being inclined to the plane of rotation of the bat at an angle less than said first means.

4. A machine for disintegrating lump solids comprising a rotatably mounted disintegrating bat, a rotatably mounted feeder bat adapted to project lump solids into the path of movement of the disintegrating bat, casing structure for the bats, said structure except at inlet and discharge zones being in large part spaced from the path of movement of the disintegrating bat a considerably greater distance than from the path of movement of the feeder hat.

5. The construction of claim 4 with drive mechanism actuating said disintegrating bat at greater speed than that of said feeder hat.

6. A mobile unit machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a rotatably mounted disintegrating bat, a casing in large part surrounding the bat and having an inlet opening through which lump solids may be introduced into the downward path of movement of the bat and thereby disintegrated and moved downwardly, the casing further having a downwardly directed discharge opening located below said inlet opening, and a flexible boot associated with the discharge opening of the casing and extended axially and downwardly therefrom to a level closely adjacent to the ground level so as to substantially confine the ultimate discharge to the area traversed by the mobile unit.

7. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a disintegrating impeller device, a feeder device adapted to receive lump solids and to project the same into the disintegrating impeller device, the path of feed between the feeder device and the disintegrating device being defined in part by chute walls a lower one of which is apertured to pass smaller solid materials out of the feed path.

8. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, comprising a disintegrating impeller device, a feeder device for receiving lump solids and projecting the same into the disintegrating device, the feeder device comprising an impeller rotatable in a plane obliquely angled to the horizontal and being open to receive lump solids from above the impeller, a solids-supporting plate close to the lower side of the path of rotation of the feeder impeller, the lower edge portion of said plate being apertured to pass relatively small solids out of the path of the impeller.

9. A machine for disintegrating lump solids, compris ing a disintegrating bat mounted for rotation in a generally vertical plane, the bat having a working surface lying substantially in a plane containing the axis of rotation of the bat, a rotative feeding impeller adapted to project lump solids into the path of movement of said bat, the feeding impeller being mounted to rotate in a plane angled with respect to the vertical, a feed trough extended from the periphery of the feeding impeller to an axial side of the disintegrating bat, said trough being in part defined by a side wall substantially tangent to the feeding impeller and extended therefrom at an angle to the opposite side wall of the trough, to provide for a feed trough of progressively increasing width as it approaches the disintegrating bat and the bottom wall of the trough being angled with respect to the vertical.

10. A machine for disintegrating lump solids mounted on a mobile unit comprising a bat rotatable in a generally upright plane, a casing enclosing the upper portion of the path of rotation of the bat, with side walls generally paralleling said plane, and having an inlet opening in a side wall thereof and located to one side of a vertical plane containing the axis of rotation in a region where the bat moves downwardly, and the casing having a discharge portion arranged to extend generally tangentially downwardly from the path of rotation of the bat in a region below the level of the inlet opening, and a flexible boot connected with the discharge portion and extending downwardly as a generally in-line extension of the path of discharge of the disintegrated solids, thus minimizing wear on said boot, to a point closely adjacent to the ground level so as to substantially confine the ultimate discharge to the area traversed by the mobile unit.

11. A mobile unit machine for disintegrating lump solids comprising a bat rotatable in a generally upright plane, a casing enclosing the upper portion of the path of rotation of the bat, with side walls generally paralleling said plane, and having an inlet opening in a side wall thereof and located to one side of a vertical plane containing the axis of rotation in a region where the bat moves downwardly, the casing having a discharge portion arranged to extend generally tangentially downwardly from the path of rotation of the bat in a region below the level of the inlet opening, the terminal part of the portion being laterally directed, and a dust deflector arranged to deflect materials discharged in a downward direction so as to substantially confine the ultimate dis charge to the area traversed by the mobile unit.

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